


One Last Summer Song

by MovingPen



Series: On the Road Again [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Confessions, F/M, Little bit of angst, short related oneshots from a roadtrip
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-22
Updated: 2016-05-01
Packaged: 2018-05-28 07:35:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6320308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MovingPen/pseuds/MovingPen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles and Lydia sit outside on the first night of summer. High school is over. </p><p>They both know this road trip is their way of saying goodbye.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Vintage Photograph

**Author's Note:**

> A short, sweet break from my other project.

“It’s over, I think.” Stiles says. He and Lydia are sitting out on the front porch of her house. Stiles’s Jeep is parked in the driveway, and it’s packed full of suitcases, bags, coolers. Everything they’d need for a road trip.

“I don’t think it’ll ever be over,” Lydia replies. Her hair is pulled back, and the fiery gold is striking against the sunlight. “I don’t think I want it to be over.”

Stiles takes her hand. It’s gentle, not demanding or imploring. His eyes find the sun setting behind the house across the street and he squints at the light. “I don’t, either.”

Silence carries between them. Lydia fiddles with the hem of her shorts, and Stiles watches. 

“I mean, what’s the real world like?” She looks away from him. It's nonchalant. “I don’t know if I remember anymore."

“That’s why we’re doing this.” Stiles rubs the back of her hand with his thumb, “We’re going to take a trip like normal teenagers, we’re going to have one last summer together, and then…”

“Then I’m off to Cornell,” Lydia turns her head towards him, wayward curls that escaped the bun bouncing down to her chin, “and you’re staying here.”

Stiles furrows his brow at that, and his lips tighten. He nods, just barely. “Yeah.” 

The silence returns. The sun creeps down and leaves them in the shadow of the house across the street; crickets start chirping, and the summer day turns into a cool summer night. “I’m… really going to miss you.” His brows are still drawn close, like a dam shut tight against tears. “I’m going to miss everyone.”

“It’s not like we’ll never see each other again.” Lydia tries. She says it like she believes it, but there’s unmistakable doubt hidden deep down. With Stiles staying in Beacon Hills, they could never be sure. “I’ll come back and visit between semesters. So will Scott. Malia’s staying.”

“Malia’s not you,” Stiles cut back. He holds her hand more tightly. “It’s just… you and Scott, you’re the only people that’ve been there for all of it. We all have… this. We’ll always have this. But after this summer, we’ll… we’ll never have anything like that again, y’know? You’ll meet new people. Scott’ll probably meet new werewolves, knowing him. We’ll all be fighting different battles with different people, living different lives.”

“Stiles.” She turned his face away from the setting sun so they could look eye-to-eye, “What we have—what we built here in Beacon Hills? It’s stronger than high-school friendship. We’re a family. A really weird, really supernatural family. And putting the whole world between us couldn’t change that.”

Stiles doesn’t believe her. Lydia isn’t sure if she does, either.

“Let’s just enjoy this last summer, okay?” Lydia smiles at him, “There’s a lot of road between here and Cornell University.”

“Yeah,” Stiles smiles back at her, but it’s tight. Not happy, but not melancholy either. “We are going to need _so much_ coolant.”


	2. Like Teenagers Do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skinny dipping is an integral part of the teenage experience.  
> Well, that's what the movies said.

In his life, Stiles didn’t ever think he’d get to see this view. The moon above them was full, the water below them was a radiant silver, and in the middle of it all was Lydia.

It was one of many stops on their route to Cornell. One of the smaller national parks on the edge of California. It was known for it’s mountain ranges and, in the summer, beautiful hot springs. The two of them had snuck out after everyone else had called it a night. Lydia hadn’t been for it at first, but Stiles’ mischievous smile had won her over.

She hadn’t brought a swimsuit, and neither had he.

“Okay, are you turned around?” Stiles asked, squinting through the darkness with a stupid smile on his face. He was still wearing his jeans, “Eyes closed?”

“Totally blind,” Lydia was already treading water, eyes well averted. “I can’t believe we’re doing this.”

There was a loud splash instead of a response, and Lydia gasped as the water spattered over her shoulders. She turned around quickly, Stiles’s soaked face greeting hers in the moonlight. His hair was plastered to his head, and hers was too. They looked stupid, embarrassed—like teenagers.

“You sure you didn’t peek?” Stiles asked, “Not even a little?”

“Did you want me to?” She laughed back, finding it her only defense against the utter absurdity of the situation she’d landed herself in.

“Maybe a little, yeah,” Stiles joked, “Isn’t that what teenagers are supposed to do?”

“We’re not really teenagers anymore,” Lydia reminded him, treading water so she floated leisurely away from him. Stiles followed, “I’m nineteen—you’ll be nineteen soon. I feel like there’s a lot I have to do before I turn twenty-- normal stuff that I can tell my roommates about at Cornell.”

“Normal stuff is boring,” Stiles dismissed, “You’re so much better than normal, Lydia.”

“Hm. Wish I wasn’t.” She dipped under the water, coming up with her hair pulled back. The moon framed her perfectly. “I’m really jealous of you, Stiles.”

That was the last thing Stiles ever expected to come out of Lydia’s mouth.

“No matter what happens, you’re still… you. You know how to make everything okay again. You never let it drag you down. You don’t let anyone stop you from doing what you know is right. And even though you’re not—you don’t have super-powers or anything, you manage to get the bad guy before we do. I think that’s amazing.”

Stiles let the silence drag on for a few seconds. Then minutes. An hour.

It was a comfortable silence, punctuated only be the gentle lapping of the water at the edge of the spring.

“Lydia,” Her name had to be forced from his lips, scared and uncertain. “This is going to be the last time we see each other. When we leave you at Cornell and Scott goes to college—it’s going to be over. And that means I’ve wasted all this time—these last four years—and I only have two more months with you.”

A beat of silence.

“I’ve loved you since fourth grade. At first it was because you were pretty, and then because you were so smart and confident, but you loved Jackson, and then I knew I couldn’t love you anymore. I had to love the fact that you were happy, and I did. I love that more than anything, I love your smile, and your laugh, and I told myself I loved your happiness more than I loved you, but that’s not true. It’s never been true.”

Lydia drifted over to where he was, both of them lit in monochrome.

“And when I leave you in New York, it’s—it’s going to break my heart.”

His eyes were looking everywhere but her face, but her hand slipped out of the water and guided his chin level with hers.

“I know.”

Slowly, carefully, she tilted her head. Stiles mirrored her and when their lips met it was like they were both having their first kiss all over again. Hearts beating fast coupled with a stupid eagerness, excitement, but different in that they were both colored with practice.

It was perfect in a way it couldn’t have been four years ago or yesterday. It had to be now, it had to be like this, after everything else.

They only pulled apart because their heads bobbed underneath the water and Stiles snorted water, leading him to cough uncontrollably while Lydia laughed off to the side. “You okay?” She managed, trying to cover her mouth like it’d hide her giggles.

“Good! I’m good! Great, that was—good,” Stiles managed right back, “Is it getting dark out, or is that just me?”

“It’s been night since we got out here, Stiles,” Lydia smiled, “Come on. We should get some sleep before hitting the road tomorrow. Did you bring towels?”

“…oops.”


End file.
